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The Occult



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Mon Jul 02, 2018 6:01 pm
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Mageheart says...



The Occult

[A Saeverse Storybook]

There are two sides to the world. One of these sides is the one that is accepted by the majority of society: everything can be explained by society, with few exceptions. These are the people who experience what are considered normal lives. Everyone is one of these people at some point.

It takes events of catastrophic proportions to bring them to the other side. They are not the results of heartbreak, injury or even natural disasters. This change is caused by something of the supernatural variety. Demonic possessions, violent hauntings, being attacked by a monster out of myth – these are the trigger points. Rather than returning to their old lives and pretending that nothing out of the ordinary had happened, they become determined to seek out what science cannot explain.

The story begins in Creston, Nevada. Situated in the middle of the wilderness, Creston has been home to a series of mysterious disappearances for the entirety of its existence. A somewhat shady and bizarre cast of characters has suddenly shown up in the town. Though they may not be forthcoming with their true reasons for arriving, the truth is clear to anyone paying close enough attention. They are here because they believe something supernatural is at fault for the disappearances, and they are determined to discover what. And as they investigate using whatever means necessary, they begin to learn more about themselves – and how what sent them on their journeys is connected.

Creston is not the ending of their story; it is only where it starts. These hunters of the supernatural are destined to encounter many more threats together, and only time will tell how they fare against them.

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mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





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Wed Jul 25, 2018 12:55 pm
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Mageheart says...



Sebastian Kueper


Creston's bar was a small, unassuming place nestled between a row of department stores that towered above it. The paint on the side of the building had faded considerably, and a small patch of weeds had begun to break through the cracks in the sidewalk that led to the front door. A small group of people left and entered the establishment as he parked his old van in the first empty parking space he saw.

Even before he had taken the key out, one of the back doors was flung open. He caught a glimpse of Gabriel slamming the door shut behind him before he made a beeline for the bar. He looked over at the passenger seat and rolled his eyes at Gabriel's antics. In turn, Issac simply gave him the best smile could do - one where his lips just couldn't turn up the way they were supposed to with a smile - and exited the car himself.

He slung his bag over one shoulder and met Issac at the front of the car.

Pushing past the newest group of people exiting the bar, they made their way into the establishment. Though the front of the building hadn't been particularly interesting, the inside was filled with a whole host of people. It took a few minutes, but they eventually found Gabriel chatting with one of the bartenders. Sebastian sighed and went to bring him away to another, more private table. But before he could do so, Gabriel put a hand up and waved them away.

Sebastian sighed. He and Issac silently made their way to one of the tables in the back of the bar, gaining more than a few curious glances. It wasn't that they looked interesting on their own. If it had just been one of them or the other, no one would have paid them any mind. But the combination of their appearances made for quite the interesting sight - one would think they would be wearing similar clothes if they were coming from the same place.

Sebastian and Issac occupied themselves with looking at the menu. It wasn't like Issac could actually eat any of them, but it was a good way to pass the time. Neither one of them felt like talking. They were both exhausted after their last job, but Gabriel had insisted they go to the town's bar and then book a room at the local motel.

After Sebastian had read the menu a few times, Gabriel finally showed up. He promptly plopped himself into the chair between Issac and Sebastian, grabbed a menu and began to flip through it with a bored expression on his face.

"Are you sure you're not an incubus?" Sebastian questioned, raising an eyebrow.

Gabriel peered over his sunglasses at him. "Last time I checked, I'm just the most devilish man around." He went back to reading his menu with the same, bored expression on his face.

"The bartender says otherwise," Sebastian said. "He's still looking at you."

Issac shook his head. "I don't think Gabriel won his heart," he argued, giving the briefest of glances back in the bartender's direction. Sebastian followed Issac's gaze. He was right; that wasn't the look of someone who had fallen in love. It was the look of someone who was very, very pissed.

"What did you say to him?" Sebastian asked, closing his menu and putting it down on the table. Another waiter, this one slightly older than the one Gabriel had been talking to, came over and filled their empty glasses with water. Sebastian went to take a sip of the water. "I've never see you make someone look so mad before."

"I asked him about his sister."

He nearly choked.

"You what?"

"Asked him about his sister," Gabriel nonchalantly repeated. "The conversation got just a bit more heated about that, for reasons I can't comprehend."

"That might have something to do with the fact that you just tried hitting on his sister," Sebastian drily said. He knew Gabriel tended to flirt with people they met from time to time, but it was never like that. It was a new low, even for him.

Gabriel placed the menu down. Now he was the one who raised an eyebrow, giving Sebastian a clear look of disbelief from behind his sunglasses. "I'm horrified that you think I'd do something like that, Sebastian Kueper," he said, gasping and holding a hand over his heart. "I was investigating our newest case. He's the older brother of one of the kids that went missing - I recognized his name and face from one of those articles I read on the way here. Turns out he's not exactly thrilled about having dashing and mysterious strangers ask about his missing little sister. He threatened to kick me out if I kept bugging him, so I came over here to bug you guys instead."

He appreciated the thought behind the action, but he couldn't help but groan at what had just occurred. Gabriel didn't exactly have tact when it came to talking with strangers, and it would be difficult to win the man back after his bad first impression of the group. "Great. We already made an enemy and we haven't even been here five minutes."

Issac cleared his throat.

Sebastian and Gabriel turned to look at him.

"We're still being followed," Issac said, dropping his voice to little more than a whisper.

Sebastian started to look wildly look around.

Gabriel sighed. "Jesus Christ, I keep forgetting how new you are to this."

"I've been dealing with the supernatural for three years now," he indignantly protested.

"Not that," Gabriel replied, giving another overly dramatic sigh. "I'm talking about the being followed part. You're traveling with two people who clearly aren't normal - me with my extraordinarly good looks, and Issac being, well, Issac."

Issac gave him an amused look.

"No offense to you, Issac," Gabriel hurriedly added. "You're very good looking, too. But, as I was saying, Sebastian, you're bound to run into hunters hunting you once or twice. That's what you did with me, remember? This isn't my first rodeo, but it's yours. And trust me when I say the people who try to catch three potentially dangerous people like us aren't going to be amateurs. They're going to be the best of the best."

"That was ominous," Sebastian said.

Gabriel took large swig of water. "It was meant to be." He slammed his glass down onto the table. "Now, time to talk about all those missing children!"
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





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Wed Jul 25, 2018 7:02 pm
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kat13254 says...



Daphne Lovegarden

My sister, her gorgeous face, so youthful and innocent... The trees, such a beautiful sight in the spring... The trees, they're spilling red..? Blood?! I rush over to grab my sister and see the same murky red liquid dripping from her nose and eyes...
~~~
I wake up screaming, trying to blink the image of my little sister out of my mind. The dog comes rushing into the room, her soft fur surrounding me as she jumps into my bed. Despite her large 100 pounds, she still lies across me. She would squish me if I wasn't so used to her cuddly self, her inner puppy still very very much around.
Mom trails in, a few minutes after the dog, at first she'd jump and run, but now she's so used to my nightmares she's not in such a rush.
"Rose again?" She asks in a mostly non-chalant voice.
I can tell she's getting annoyed of being woken up every night to my screams. It makes me feel so terrible, but despite her best efforts I still wake up. Herbs, teas, even medication, which has always been her code red, she hates prescription medication. None of it works, I still have these bone chilling nightmares every night about Rosie.
Her disappearance shook our family. She's not the only disappearance, but the one closest to home. What scared me most is the vivid image of her, blood running from her eyes and mouth.
Her disappearance in reality was sudden, she was as happy as she always was when she went to walk to her friends house and never showed up. I told the crisis therapist my parents have me seeing that I think there's something more to her disappearance, but she just laughed it off, which shut down my theory pretty quickly.
I continue theorizing, but this time in private, only telling the therapist about the sane thoughts I have.
~~~
After its considered a reasonable hour and walking outside won't make the neighbours think I'm a drunken teen wandering home from a late night out partying, I throw on a coat for the chill air, and tie my long silver bangs up in a braid, the hair falling in with the rest. I slide on my long boots, the fur around my high calf a blessing. I open the door, trying to keep it quiet as to not wake my parents for the second time.
I shut the door, depsite the dogs dismay, and the sad puppy dog eyes she gives. It's too early for her to come with me because as soon as I grab the leash she'll unleash into her true form...
A manic barking crazy ball of fur who'll wake up the neighborhood with her zoomies.
I laugh quietly to myself thinking of the fur ball, when I stop dead in my tracks. I blink a few times, and when it still doesn't change what I see I wipe my eyes, taking a few cautious steps forward until I'm sure of what I see.
I point and scream at the top of my lungs.
"GREEN!! WINGS!!"
Everything begins to go fuzzy as I see the man... whatever he is, come closer to me until I feel myself hit the pavement, yet there's no pain as everything just fades to black.
~~~
I start to come to my senses and adjust myself into a more comfortable position, slowly opening my eyes, I look around until I freeze seeing the man I saw before I fainted, A green man with sharp features and slanted eyes. It isn't as alarming as it was the first time I saw his face.
"Who are you? More importantly. What the hell are you?" I ask.

He makes a light shushing sound. 'Not so loud.' He looks around.
'Brian Flanagan, fairy and demon slayer, at your service. Are you okay?' He said, still keeping an eye out for unwanted attention from bystanders. His wings twitch in apprehension.

"You must be crazy, or no. I must have hit my head much too hard." I poke at his cheek, suprised when I feel actual skin, not makeup, not some coma induced illusion. "Fairies aren't real, and neither are demons. Do tell, are you a LARPer or whatever the geeks call themselves these days?"

First he looks insulted, then confused. 'You mean you don't...you don't know? You should know this. The spell that makes me look human only works on humans.'

"Geez, now I remember why I don't come out this early. All the Crazies are out. You should check yourself into rehab, you definitely have a drug problem."

The short green man frowns in thought, then his expression changes to a sheepish grin. 'Um...nope, this was a prank. You've been pranked! Bye.'
Then he hops up from the bench, and walks away. Then it gets awkward, so he breaks into a jog until he is out of sight.

"Drug addicts man." I stand up, feeling completely fine after the fall, weirdly enough, and not wanting to deal with anyone else like that I begin my walk home.
I see 3 men walking down the street, looking to be pointing out various details. More weirdos? I pull up the hood of my jacket and try to keep my head down. What is becoming of this town.
I see one of their heads turn in my direction, and try to slyly point in my direction. I sigh and start walking faster when I see them start trying to catch up to me.

They quickly cross the street, the blond one darting ahead of the others and stopping right in front of me. A few moments later, his companions join him. They're all relatively younger - the one in the center looking the youngest out of all of them.

"Hey," the blond one says, "you're Daphne Lovegarden, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am. Who might you be." I stand up straighter, wanting to appear more confident than I am.

"The name's Gabriel," he says, then points to his two companions. "Moody over there is Sebastian-"

"Hey!" the man in question exclaims, but his protest falls on deaf ears as Gabriel continues speaking.

"-and the lovely man to your right and my left is Issac."

"And you guys are here why? Is there a LARP convention here or something." My voice deadpan, I hope they even understand what I'm talking about.

The comment causes two out of the three of them - Gabriel and Sebastian - to each raise an eyebrow. It's the third member of their little trio that actually answers my question. Issac takes a step forwards, adopts a smile that's not quite right, and says, "We wanted to talk to you about your sister."

"My sister!? What do you know about my sister?"

"Nothing," Sebastian hurriedly adds, shooting an almost nervous glance in Issac's direction. Gabriel, on the other hand, responds to my questions by shoving his hands into the pockets of his leather jackets and keeping a completely neutral - and almost bored - expression on his face. "We've heard about the disappearances and we wanted to see if we could help-"

"You can help! Oh please let me help you, I need to know what happened to her! Please!"

Sebastian sighs in what sounds like relief. "The best way you can help us right now is by telling us everything you remember about her disappearance, and letting us ask you more questions when we come up with them." He says this all in a professional way, as if this isn't his first time dealing with a situation like this.

"Anything! She wasn't the first, she was walking to a friends house, a-and then. She was gone. Just gone."

"We already knew that-" Gabriel starts to say, promptly shutting up when Sebastian slams his foot down into his shoe.

"Thanks for the help," Sebastian says - Gabriel is grumbling beside him, but doesn't try interrupting.

"We'll find you if we need more information," Issac added, giving a brief glance in the direction of his two companions.

Then they're gone, disappearing back down the street they had come from as suddenly as they had arrived. Something is definitely going on here. I don't know what, and I don't know why, but I need to find it out. Damn, if only I didn't send the weird "Fairy" man away.
Mew ฅ(⌯͒• ɪ •⌯͒)ฅ❣





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Tue Sep 11, 2018 8:56 am
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SirenCymbaline says...



Fairy! Brian

In his search thus far, Brian had found six demons, two ghosts, a poltergeist, fifteen cats, and a few coupons, but still hadn't come remotely close to finding the specific demon he was after. The rogue demon. The one that was so off the rails, he'd been bumping off all sorts of people left and right, fellow demons included. Taking down a fella like that, that sort of credit would be legendary.

But after several months of scrying and divining and deducting, the best he'd been able to do was narrow it down from the entire US, to just one half of the US, to Creston, Nevada.
The states were a bit, ah, bigger, and more demon-filled than he'd anticipated.

But in other news, those fifteen cats and the countless people whose memories he'd had to erase himself from this week were doing just fine.

At least, that was what Brian told himself while his brilliant deductive methods were reduced to walking around densely populated areas with his fingers crossed, sneakily coughing the word 'Christo' every few minutes.

No. Shut up. Magic was actually very useful for tracking demons. Runic stuff, which was the stuff Brian was best at, was better for more than just granting passive spell effects to objects.
For example, Brian had a rune tattooed onto his left hand, which roughly translated to 'there's weird stuff somewhere around here', which would be faded when there was nothing to detect, and turn darker when supernatural things were around.

It was meant to say 'demon stuff' specifically, but he'd accidentally put a singular dot slightly out of place, so it became 'weird stuff', and thus would get thrown off by other supernaturals.

So he'd have to find things with the Hot-Cold Method, and then clarify if they were actually demons or not with the Subtly Cough 'Christo' And Hope The Bloodthirsty Demons Don't Catch Your Drift, Thus Ruining What Constitutes As The Element Of Surprise When You're Green method.

Today the Hot-Cold Method led him to a park, and the cause was a silver-haired teenage girl. Brian didn't even have to use the SCCAHTBDDCYDTRWCATEOSWYG method to tell that she wasn't a demon. She had a pretty strong nymph vibe going on.

But what really caught his attention was that she froze, pointed at him, and screamed 'GREEN! WINGS!', before collapsing to the ground on the spot. That was alarming, to understate things.

Good god. What was her deal? His kind may have been an uncommon sight in the human world, but he couldn't help but feel that she'd overreacted just a tad.
And she'd loudly pointed out what he was, which was very rude, to say the least.
Just like a nymph to scream at him and fall over. They could be flighty like that sometimes.

The next few minutes were spent getting the girl who was roughly the same size as him onto a park bench, hoping nobody would come around and notice, and then awkwardly sitting on the opposite side, waiting for her to wake up. He was thankful when she did.

"Who are you? More importantly. What the hell are you?" she snapped.

What sort of question that? What are you? Was she being metaphorical? Sarcastic? She didn't sound very sarcastic.

He made a light shushing sound. "'Not so loud.' He looked around. Had anyone heard that? No. Thank god.

''Brian Flanagan, fairy and demon slayer, at your service. Are you okay?'' he said, still keeping an eye out for unwanted attention.

"You must be crazy, or no. I must have hit my head much too hard." She poked him in the cheek. He recoiled.

"Fairies aren't real, and neither are demons." she said, matter-of-factly.
"Do tell, are you a LARPer or whatever the geeks call themselves these days?"

At first he felt insulted. But then it became clear that she really hadn't a clue what he was. But that made no sense. She was a part of the supernatural world.

''You mean you don't...you don't know?'' said Brian, confused. ''You should know this. The spell that makes me look human only works on humans.''

"Geez, now I remember why I don't come out this early. All the Crazies are out. You should check yourself into rehab, you definitely have a drug problem."

Oh. She really did not know. Brian supposed it was possible for somebody to be descended from the supernatural without being aware of it. It probably happened a lot more than one would think. But Brian felt that it was really none of his business, and she seemed like she'd rather live a normal life anyway. Why not just let her think what she wanted to think?

''Um...nope, this was a prank. You've been pranked! Bye.''
Then he hopped up from the bench, and walked away. When it got awkward, he broke into a jog.

Once out of sight, he reflected on this thing that...happened. It indeed was a happening, that hard occurred. Mainly a waste of time for him, and a free potential existential crisis for her. Her and those three guys she was talking with now.

Brian gave up and walked the other way. For the next few minutes, his rune tattoo would continue to point in the same direction, but he paid it no heed, assuming it was just reacting to the same girl. Then he turned around to look just one more time, and saw that the girl had left the area, but the rune was still the same opacity. Oh.

Brian facepalmed, winced at having hit himself in the face too hard, and headed for those three guys.

One of these three men was a demon, hopefully the target he'd been looking for, and the other two must have been his human friends.

This was Brian's least favourite part of the job. Mesmers could only do so much.
Humans who had unknowingly befriended a demon could be mesmerized into forgetting the part where they saw Brian murder their pal, but he couldn't erase the years and years of memories from their lives entirely. Not safely, at any rate. So there'd be no choice but to leave it and hope for the best.

But first, he had to test the waters with the Christo method, just to be safe.
Just before he was about to pass them by, he coughed.
"Christo."

The third man's eyes blackened at the word.

There was no longer a reason for subtlety. Brian stopped in his tracks, rubbed the back of his head, and sighed in relief.

"Agh, finally! Damn, I hope you're the rogue I've been lookin' up and down the whole bloomin' country for. I mean, playing tourist is fun and all, but it's not a good look, professionally."

He then addressed the demon's human friends, but kept a careful eye on his target.

"I hate to be the one to break this to ya, but, your friend here is a demon, so I'mma have to slay him." He opened his hand, and a green throwing knife materialised into it.
"Awful sorry about that."
Bad souls have born better sons, better souls born worse ones -St Vincent





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Tue Oct 02, 2018 12:24 am
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AliceinBluue says...



The Irving Siblings


Macy hit the ground running, not even waiting until Jake had fully stopped the car before she was out and running. She heard Jake call her name but her focus had narrowed down to the scene in front of her.

The ghost stood in the middle of a bridge, it’s latest victim-a teenage girl just out of school for the summer- held over the edge as it looked at Macy and snarled.

Macy watched at the girl attempted to claw at the ghost’s hands, trying to release it’s hold so she could get air to her lungs. She thrashed her legs as the ghost flickered in place.

She could hear Jake pulling up behind her, his longer legs giving him an advantage over her head start. But they just were not moving fast enough. She could feel that fact thrumming through her bones.

The ghost gave one last flicker in place before it released it’s hold on the girl. She shrieked as she plummeted to the river below before landing with a splash.

“No!” The scream rips its way out of Macy’s throat.

Jake reaches the ghost a split second before her, but Macy does not care about the ghost anymore. She knows Jake has that part of the job down. She is more focused on the girl who just went into the river.

She plants one foot solidly on the bridge next to the ghost and pushes her next foot to plant on the railing.

Jake catches on to what she is doing as she pushes herself into open air.

She is pretty sure Jake tries to grab her, it is the type of thing he would do, but if he does, he misses her as she crosses her arms over her chest and braces herself to hit the water.

It is cold. That is the first thing that hits her as she is submerged. It is so cold that all the breath leaves her lungs in a whoosh.

She struggled to the surface, needing more air. But she is swept farther along the river. She bubbled along, trying to keep her bearings as the currents dragged her this way and that.

Finally she managed to get her head above water and dragged as much air into her lungs as possible. As soon as she no longer felt like her lungs were going to burst, she tried to look around, tried to find the girl.

For a few terrifying moments, she sees nothing and Macy is terrified that she has lost the girl for good.

Macy is pulled back under the surface and she struggles to get back up. When she does, she catches sight of what she hopes is the girl’s head and she angles her body in that direction, trying to guide herself in that general area.

She gets dragged under again and she can feel her legs and arms starting to drag and Macy knows she does not have much time left before she has to drag herself out of the river or risk dying.

She pushes herself back to the surface and comes face to face with the girl, who’s struggling to keep her head above the water.

Macy wraps her arm around the girl and the girl shrieks into Macy’s ear. The girl flailed out, shoving her hand into Macy’s face and back under the water. Macy lets go of the girl and pushes herself back to the surface.

The girl is still there and still screaming as Macy grabs one of the other girl’s flailing hands.

“Stop! Stop! I’m trying to help you!” Macy yelled, trying to get her hands on the girl, trying to keep them together in the rushing waters.

The girl slapped Macy’s hands away even ash her head slipped back under the water. MAcy dove after her and wrapped her arms around the girl’s waist.

Macy tried to swim to the surface as the girl tharshed in her hold, slamming the back of her head into Macy’s nose.

Macy pushed them into air and desperately tried to look around for the shore.

“Let go of me!” The girl shrieks and slams her head into Macy’s nose again. This time, Macy feels it break and she clenches her jaw against the groan of pain she wants to let out as she starts to bleed.

They sink under the water again and Macy could feel her limbs dragging her down. The girl was not much help in stay afloat either. She was too concerned with dislodging Macy to actually try swimming.

But Macy refused to let go. So she forced her way back to the surface and looked for the shore.

She caught sight of it as she was pulled along by the river and she started swimming in that direction, the other girl screaming and clawing at Macy’s arms, still wrapped around her stomach.

“Shut up and help me!” Macy snapped as the girl, frustrated with the fact that she was dragging along her dead weight and she could not use her arms to push them along.

The girl froze in Macy’s arm and they went under the water again. Macy felt a growl building up in her chest as she unwound one of her arms in order to actually swim.

The girl did not scream and thrash when they broke the surface, but se was not exactly helping Macy drag their bodies through the rushing river either.

Finally, Macy pulled them into shallow water. She released her hold on the girl in favor of moving her body farther out of the water. She felt tired and cold and ninety percent water logged as she collapsed on the river bank, focusing on moving air through her lungs as she heard the other girl gasp and breath somewhere near her.

“You didn’t try to kill me,” the other girl said after a moment. Macy could hear the girl’s confusion and she knew, deep inside of her that the girl had been scared and confused in the river. But she was cold and wet and irritable and Jake was probably going out of his mind with worry right now.

“No, but you almost killed both of us,” Macy snapped, letting her anger control her actions so she would not have to deal with the other emotions coiling red hot at her core.

“Sorry,” the word was almost not even there, but Macy allowed it to wash away some of her anger.

Macy felt herself relaxing into the ground, knowing that Jake had taken care of the ghost by now, because Jake was a professional and at least a little used to Macy’s antics while out on a hunt now. They just had to hold still and wait for him to find them.

“Are you dying?” The girl asked, her voice much closer now than it had been before. Macy twisted her head and looked the girl in the eyes.

“No, I’m not dying, I’m waiting for my brother,” Macy said. She watched as the girl relaxed slightly, sitting down beside her. As the girl positioned herself, Macy closed her eyes. She could practically feel the adrenaline leaving her body.

“Your brother was the one who was driving the car?” The girl asked after a second. Macy sighed and readjusted herself so that she was facing her.

“Yeah, Jake was driving the car.”

“Did you know there was a ghost?”

“Yeah, Jake and I hunt them.”

“Why?”

Macy stared long and hard at the girl, trying to figure out what to say to her. She did not even know her name, figured that the girl did not know hers either. But she still wanted to know why Macy hunted ghosts.

“Because if we didn’t you and a lot of other people would be dead right now,” Macy said, her voice bland and nondescript. The other girl startled a little.

“I would have gotten out of the river eventually,” the girl said, her voice petulant.

“The river was the ghost’s second option, it WANTED to steal all the breath from your lungs,” Macy said.

“And it stopped when you and your brother showed up?”

“Yeah, Jake and I almost had it the other night and I guess it remembered that we could be dangerous.”

There was a moment of silence between them, “Hey, can I ask you a question?”

“Nothing stopping you.”

“How old are you?”

The question startled Macy. She had been expecting a question about the ghost or maybe about how she and Jake hunted or even about how she and Jake had gotten started. Those were all the normal questions. She could not remember the last time someone had asked her age.

“I’m 19,” Macy’s voice was quiet.

“You’re barely older than I am!” The girl practically screeched as she scrambled closer to Macy, “You should be in school and dating boys, not jumping into rivers and hunting ghosts!”

“Someone’s gotta do it”

“Macy! MACY?” They heard a voice echoing through the forest around them and Macy sat up at the sound of her brother’s voice, trying to locate where he was coming from.

“Jake!” Macy shouted, wanting to put her brother out of his worry as soon as possible.

“Macy!” The relief in her brother’s voice was palpable for Macy. She felt kinda bad for making him worry, but she knew she would always make the same choices.

“We’re okay! We’re over here!” Macy stood up, energy flooding back into her veins as she caught sight of her brother running through the forest towards them.

~~~


Jake knew Macy was bored. She had been chanting it under her breath for the last fifteen minutes. Jake knew his sister was bored out of her mind, they had not gotten a case in three weeks and it was driving the both of them a little stir crazy.

Still, if he had to listen to her whispered chants for one more minute, he was going to snap.

He cleared his throat, a little louder and more obvious than was strictly necessary, hoping she would get the point so he cold focus.

There was a moment of silence and Jake felt himself starting to relax. Focusing once again on the newspapers spread out on the table in front of him.

“AAAAaaaaaannNNNnnnd IIIIIIIIIiiiiiiieeeeeiiiiiiiii,” Macy belted out, pitching her voice so that every drawn out note of the butchered song sounded like the protests of a dying cat as it was pulled along a chalkboard, “WWWwwwIIIIIIIiiilllllllll AAAAALLLLLLWWWAAAAyyyyssss LlllooOOOOvVEE YyyyYYOOOOoooUuU!”

“MACY!” Jake’s temper snapped as he jumped to his feet, turning to glare at his little sister as she continued to wail the song at the top of her lungs as she relaxed on her bed.

Jake let out an angry shout as he grabbed his wallet and his key card and stormed out of the room, Macy’s satisfied screeching following him out.

Jake stalked down the sidewalk in front of the motel they were staying at for the next few days. He could feel the restless energy building up beneath his skin, making him itch with the need to be moving, to be DOING something.

With his dad it had never been like this. They had wandered, sure. But it had always seemed like they were wandering with a purpose. And when it seemed that they had been wandering for a hunt for as long as they could take it, they always managed to find themselves heading home.

Jake did not know how to work a hunt like his dad had done, did not know how to keep them on the move, on the job. And he could not help but feel as if he is letting Macy down.

She should never have been out on the job anyways, their dad had wanted to keep her out of it. But then after he had died, Jake had not know what to do. He had moved on autopilot.

He could still hear his dad screams as the ghost had grabbed him, he was fuzzy on the other details, but the screams haunted his nightmares.

The next thing he really remembered was jumping into the car and racing back home as fast as the wheels would turn. He knew that he had to get back to Macy, keep her safe and out of harm’s way and out of the system.

He had originally planned on living at home with her, resuming a normal life, picking up a job to support them. But as soon as he had turned into the driveway, he had known he could not stay there, the house had too many memories for him to stay there.

So he had grabbed Macy and run, run far and fast. Trying to put as much distance between them and the house and the memories as possible.

Even after running, he had done his best to keep all the realities of his life as far away from his baby sister for as long as possible. But he had gotten complacent and reckless and then she had stumbled right into one of his hunts that had ventured too close to where he had left her.

His heart had stopped when he had seen her step into the path of the ghost, sure that he was about to watch his last family member die and all he could think about was how he had let his father down in the exact same way.

Jake pushed those thoughts away, not wanting to relive the terror he had felt any longer. They needed a case, something to focus their energies on.

He found himself standing outside the door of a Denny’s Waffle House and figured that he might as well eat, stay out of the room for a little bit. Causally interact with people who were not his sister. Feel like a regular person for a little while.

He walked in and ordered some waffles and relaxed as he listened to the conversations being carried out all around him, not really focusing on any of them. He felt himself relax into a kind of peace as his waffles arrived and he ate like a starving man.

“It just seems strange to me Janet,” Someone nearby said, their voice carrying a bit over the din of the other diners.

“Sometimes people just disappear Nathan, and sometimes we find them, sometimes we don’t, that’s just the way it is,” A woman, Janet, answered the first speaker.

“No. No! Not my Bella,” Jake was well and truly paying attention now as he caught sight of the speakers and watched as the man started to tear up.

“She wouldn’t have left me, not like this,” the man seemed desperate, grabbing at the woman as tears streamed down his face. Other patrons were starting to take notice and it was clear that the woman was uncomfortable with everyone turning to stare at them.

“We are going everything we can to look for her Nathan, I promise you,” the woman said as she tried to extract her arm from his grip.

Jake finished up his meal as fast as possible and threw some money down on the table as the woman made her escape out of the restaurant and the man followed her, demanding all the way that she needed to be doing more to find his missing Bella.

When Jake caught up to the sobbing man, he was standing alone in the middle of the parking lot. The woman was nowhere in sight and Jake assumed that she had gotten into a car and made her escape.

“What happened to her?” Jake asked as soon as he was within an arm’s length of the man, close enough that they could have a proper conversation, but not close enough so as to be invading the guy’s personal space.

“What?” The guy asked, looking up at Jake as if he had no idea how he had come to be there.

“Bella, what happened to her?”

“She disappeared,” the man said as new tears formed in his eyes, “The police say she left me.”

“Okay, but what happened? How did she disappear?” Jake could feel the hint of suspicion that there was something supernatural going on, but he needed more information before he made any conclusions. He hoped that he was right though, he would love to go back to Macy and let her know their dry spell was over.

“I don’t understand, why do you want to know? Are you some type of cop or something?”

“Let’s go with ‘or something’”

“And you think you might be able to help me find my Bella?”

“Potentially,” Jake did not want to make any promises or elaborate on the issue. But this guy is giving him a look and Jake knows he needs to give this guy a bit more if he wants to get any more information out of him.

“My partner and I follow leads that the police can’t follow, more than that I can’t say until I have more information about the disappearance.”

The guy gave Jake a long look, letting the silence between them stretch out. Jake said nothing, meeting the guy’s stare second for second, not willing to back down and refusing to give up any more information about what he and Macy did. The guy would either relent and tell Jake what had happened or he would walk away. Jake figured he and Macy might look into it no matter what this guy decided, but it would be helpful if they got details before they decided to stick around for a while.

After a long pause, the guy sighed and broke eye contact before haltingly telling Jake what had happened the day Bella, his wife had gone missing. There was nothing that outright screamed ‘ghost!’ to Jake, but that did not always mean that there was nothing for them. He and Macy would just have to do a bit more digging before they figured out was was going on.

“Thank you for talking to me Mr. Walker. I’m going to confer with my partner and we’ll poke around a little bit before I confirm that we can help you. Do you have a number I can reach you at if we find something we think might prove important?” Jake said, trying to sound as professional as possible, projecting an air of authority.

“Yeah, yes of course.” Nathan said and then rattled off a number. Jake repeated it back to him to confirm that he had heard it correctly before saying goodbye.

He did not exactly run back to the motel room, but he did walk very, VERY quickly. Macy was sprawled across her bed like a starfish when he burst through the door. She was snoring softly and glowing faintly.

Jack still was not sure how to feel about the glowing. The few times it had shown up while Macy was awake, it had saved her life and finished off the ghost. But Jake had no idea why she glowed, and it had started showing up more and more as she slept, turning her into a nightlight halfway through most nights.

He sighed and shoved his mounting worries and suspicions that his sister was not a typical person to the side and grabbed one of the pillows off his bed. He hurled it at Macy’s sleeping form as hard as he could, aiming for her stomach.

He hit the side of her face instead and she grumbled sleepily before curling up on her side. Jack sighed and grabbed the pillow from were it had fallen before swinging it at her face.

She woke up fully with a shout, grabbing onto the pillow and yanking it from his hands before turning it on him.

Jake threw his hands up, trying to protect his face as Macy set upon him with a fury. He ran away from her attack, laughing as he stumbled with a particularly hard blow to his hip.

“Mercy! Mercy!” Jake called as she hit his head full force.

“Why did you wake me up?” She demanded, as she hit his stomach. Jake was starting to regret hitting her with a pillow in the first place. There was probably another way that he could have woken up and this pillow HURT when she swung it.

“I think I might have found us a case!” Jake yelled as he tuck and rolled across one of the beds to give him some distance.

“You serious?” Macy asked, pausing on the opposite side of the bed, the pillow hanging by one hand at her side as she caught her breath.

“Yeah, I heard about it while you were in here dragging your feet,’ Jake said, a smirk curling at the corners of his lips as Macy’s jaw dropped. She then let out a screech of rage as she launched herself across the bed at him.

Jake moved out of her way, laughing as she scrambled to get at him.

“Alright, alright let’s get to work,” he said as Macy got her feet under her.

“You’re just saying that cause you know I would kick your butt,” Macy said, her eyes narrowing as she dropped the pillow and moved to grab her bag for her notebooks and general research materials from where it was sitting beside her bed.

“Maybe,” Jake conceded as he grabbed his keys and opened up the door for them.





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kat13254 says...



Lana


The presence of my prey stalls, almost like they're stopping somewhere. I have to move faster. I kick my car up a notch, speeding my way towards the presence. I open my phone through voice commands, locating the nearest places by me that they could've stopped. Creston. The name sounds familiar.

"Creston Nevada" I call out to my helpful Internet assistant.

I slow my car, pulling to the side of the road, and grab my phone from its holder.
'More disappearances reported in Creston, Nevada'
'Children reported missing in Creston Nevada'

Are the first articles appearing after the google given town information. I skim through one of the articles, kids seeming vanishing out of thin air. I nod my head in understanding. I heard about this from Dad. He suspects possible supernatural influence. I turn off my phone and turn back onto the road, quickly kicking up my speed, heading straight to Creston.

After about an hour I see the sign for the turn off. My mouth instinctively waters as I can feel their presence getting closer. Despite my hesitance I slow to the town speed limit. The early morning just starting to light the sky. I glance at the clock in my truck and it's almost 7AM. I am always glad that being a demon makes the nights less harsh, especially on lack of sleep. The small winding road on the outskirts of town connecting this small town to the highway are dotted with thick patches of forest. The whole area just screams supernatural influence.

I scan my eyes along the mostly empty road as I enter the quaint town. I have to keep my senses open for them. I can feel them here, in this town. A devilish grin comes to my face, but my thoughts stall, thinking of these disappearing children. These disappearances aren't linked to my hunt, and damn, I'm probably gonna get swept up in all this. One downside of being a 'good' demon. I'm always blamed, when I'm just trying to help.

My only defense would have to be my status as a Succubus. We don't go after children, hell if anything we're known to help protect children, as they cause no harm to us, and neither us to them. My powers all lie in the art of seduction, and it doesn't affect children in that way.

Drawing my attention back to the road I slam on my brakes, almost hitting a silver haired girl, who stares at me like a deer in headlights. I slam on my horn, but I can't help but feel something radiating from her. Damn supernatural.

I sigh and grab the keys out of the truck, and hop out.

"And what are you doing out here this early in the morning?" I ask, frustration clearly seeping into my voice.

" Oh, I was just out for a walk. I've never seen you around here? What are you doing around here?" I notice the timid way she speaks, and the delicate aura surrounding her. Some sort of nymph or druid, if I had to wager a guess.

"I'm investigating something, ther~"

"The children? My sister," her voice drops from eager to a low sad tone with the mention of her sister, " she, she went missing. If you're investigating here, I know some other people that are to, I'd love to help!" And there's that eager tone again. If there are other supernatural here investgating... No doubt it's them. If I just play along, she should take me directly to them.

"Yeah! That's exactly what I'm doing here! I'm a professional investigator, and I'll be here as long as I need to be!" I could easily just compel her to do as I wish, but I feel like she may not fall into it, as she is supernatural herself.

"Oh that is so amazing. There's these 3 other guys, I forget exactly what their names were, but they're also here investigating. Would you be working with them?"

"No I am investigating independently, although I am not against working against them, the more the merrier they say." I put on a fake cheer, and smile kindly towards this girl. She is young, but not young enough as to be oblivious. If I had to guess I'd say around 16, she is tall, but she has a youthful appearance.

"What would your name be?"

"Oh, it's Daphne. What is yours?"

"My name is Lana. I'm guessing you live here?"

"Yes I do, like I said my sister is one of the missing children."

I make a small nod of confirmation, and gesture to my truck. She climbs into the passenger side, and I start her up again, driving more modestly than I went driving up to this point. The whole drive through town, she rambles on and on, about her sister, the 3 men she saw, the weird drug addict who called himself a fairy.

Does this girl not realize who she is? She is like me and that green man. Supernatural, yet she tells me she thinks he's just crazy, and that things like fairies don't exist. Good thing I held my tongue about being supernatural, as she is clearly in denial. She sounds like her whole world has been flipped upside down. She finally shuts up for a couple seconds before her voice comes out barely even audible.

"Can I trust you with a theory of mine?"

I nod, just enough to show her I heard her.

"I think... I think there's something else going on here. Not just a serial rapist or murderer like a lot of people believe. Something. Darker, scarier. That green man, he was something not human, and you don't feel human either. I'm sorry if that's offensive or anything, you're a very nice person, willing to let me help you, but I'm terrified to my core that there's something... supernatural going on here."

"I'm not human, neither are you, Daphne."

"That's what the green man, Brian, told me. He said only supernatural can see through his disguise, but I'm not. I'm not able to do anything out of the ordinary, I've lived in this little town all my life, and nothing has ever been upset like this. Nothing inhuman. So why now?"

"Because Daphne, something dark is here. Kidnapping children. You know that, hell you're probably the most aware of that. A supernatural teenager who's younger sister has been captured."

"19, not a teenager, but besides that, I may be close to this, but I can't do anything Lana. Every single night I have a blood chilling nightmare about her, about my sister. Now there's all these different people here. I'm terrified. What if my dream is true? What if she's dead? I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

"Hey, calm down Daphne. We can find her and make sure she's safe. You need to try to get everyone who's new around here grouped up. We all should be investigating this together, and is together, and you know who's new around here and who's not. I can start independently trying to find her, and all the other kids."

"Alright, alright. I'm okay, I'm calm. I can do this and help you." I can't help but smile at her resolve to help her sister. I would do the exact same thing for dad, and it's heartwarming to see someone have the same care for those that I do for dad. I can't think about dad now though, by just trying to catch them, I've now gotten myself involved with a much, much deeper conspiracy.
Mew ฅ(⌯͒• ɪ •⌯͒)ฅ❣








sweet mother of asparagus
— GengarIsBestBoy